Prices shot up 92 percent over the past five years

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New homes are photographed in Stockton, Calif., on Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017. New data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency shows that Stockton is on the top of the list of the country's 100 biggest metropolitan areas where home prices have increased. Experts say that's in part because Bay Area residents are fleeing the area and seeking out cities with cheaper homes, driving up prices. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)

Pedestrians walk in the morning in downtown, Stockton on Dec. 1, 2017. New data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency shows that Stockton is on the top of the list of the country's 100 biggest metropolitan areas where home prices have increased. Experts say that's in part because Bay Area residents are fleeing the area and seeking out cities with cheaper homes, driving up prices. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

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Portrait: Katrina Gonzalez, 25, left San Jose earlier this year and moved to Stockton because it was the closest city where she and her husband could afford to buy a home. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

An interior view of Katrina Gonzalez's house in Stockton on Dec. 1, 2017. 25, Gonzalez left San Jose earlier this year and moved to Stockton because it was the closest city where she and her husband could afford to buy a home. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group) (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

An interior view of Katrina Gonzalez's house in Stockton on Dec. 1, 2017. 25, Gonzalez left San Jose earlier this year and moved to Stockton because it was the closest city where she and her husband could afford to buy a home. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group) (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

An exterior view of Katrina Gonzalez's house in Stockton on Dec. 1, 2017. 25, Gonzalez left San Jose earlier this year and moved to Stockton because it was the closest city where she and her husband could afford to buy a home. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group) (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

An excavator digs a trench on the site of KB Homes' new Montevello development in Stockton, Calif., on Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017. New data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency shows that Stockton is on the top of the list of the country's 100 biggest metropolitan areas where home prices have increased. Experts say that's in part because Bay Area residents are fleeing the area and seeking out cities with cheaper homes, driving up prices. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)

A banner for new apartments is seen in Stockton, Calif., on Dec. 1, 2017. New data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency shows that Stockton is on the top of the list of the country's 100 biggest metropolitan areas where home prices have increased. Experts say that's in part because Bay Area residents are fleeing the area and seeking out cities with cheaper homes, driving up prices. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

New homes under construction in KB Homes' Montevello development are photographed in Stockton, Calif., on Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017. New data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency shows that Stockton is on the top of the list of the country's 100 biggest metropolitan areas where home prices have increased. Experts say that's in part because Bay Area residents are fleeing the area and seeking out cities with cheaper homes, driving up prices. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)

Streets that feature names of famous rock music artists are photographed in KB Homes' new Montego development in Stockton, Calif., on Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017. New data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency shows that Stockton is on the top of the list of the country's 100 biggest metropolitan areas where home prices have increased. Experts say that's in part because Bay Area residents are fleeing the area and seeking out cities with cheaper homes, driving up prices. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)

Oakland saw a 86 percent jump in home prices in the past five years according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

Construction for mixed-use residential and business project is seen on Nov. 28, 2017 in downtown, Oakland. Oakland saw a 86 percent jump in home prices in the past five years according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

Construction for mixed-use residential and business project is seen on Nov. 28, 2017 in downtown, Oakland. Oakland saw a 86 percent jump in home prices in the past five years according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

No, it’s not San Francisco, San Jose or Oakland. It’s not even in the Bay Area.

It’s Stockton, the Central Valley community twice dubbed America’s “most miserable” city by Forbes Magazine because of its high rates of housing foreclosures, unemployment and violent crime.

The jump in home prices in Stockton and neighboring Lodi — up about 92 percent over the past five years — is dramatic evidence of the ripple effects of the Bay Area’s tight housing market and the increasingly out-of-reach cost of living here. As people flee San Francisco and Silicon Valley in search of cheaper housing — heading to places like Stockton, Oakland and Sacramento — prices in those second-tier markets are rising.

New homes under construction in KB Homes’ Montevello development are photographed in Stockton, Calif., on Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)

“There’s flight away from areas where it’s expensive, to areas where it’s relatively cheap,” said Andrew Leventis, deputy chief economist at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which first noted Stockton’s dramatic rise. “It would be just incredibly improbable if that wasn’t driving up prices in the west by some magnitude.”

The federal agency analyzed housing markets in the country’s 100 largest metropolitan areas. Oakland came in second, boasting an 86 percent jump in prices, according to the report released this week. Sacramento, also a major destination for Bay Area expatriates, is number six, seeing its home prices climb 74 percent.

The San Francisco/South Bay area is high on the list too, coming in at number four with a 77 percent increase — far above the national average of 35 percent.

Construction for mixed-use residential and business project is seen on Nov. 28, 2017 in downtown, Oakland. Oakland saw a 86 percent jump in home prices in the past five years according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

Lance McHan, a real estate agent in the Stockton area, said Silicon Valley transplants are eating up homes. About half of the 18 homes he sold this year went to buyers from the Bay Area — many of them making the long commute to their Bay Area jobs. That increased demand is changing the area.

“Prices are rising,” McHan said. “Even rentals, the rental market, there’s a shortage as well. People used to pay $1,200 a month for a three-bedroom, two-bath. Now they’re paying $1,500, $1,600, $1,700 for a three-bedroom, two-bath.”

But prices in Stockton have a long way to go before they could give a Bay Area resident sticker-shock. Stockton homes sell for a median price of $260,000, compared to $1.25 million in San Francisco, $860,500 in San Jose, and $697,000 in Oakland, according to Trulia.

When Katrina Gonzalez, a manager at Red Lobster in San Jose, decided earlier this year that she wanted to buy a house, she quickly realized her options were limited. So Gonzalez and her husband, who works as a supervisor at Tesla, started looking at homes in Tracy, Livermore and Pleasanton. To their dismay, even those cities on the far edges of Silicon Valley were too expensive.

Stockton ended up being what the couple could afford. In July they paid $305,000 for a four-bedroom house, where they plan to eventually raise a family. And Gonzalez found she actually likes living in Stockton.

Portrait: Katrina Gonzalez, 25, left San Jose earlier this year and moved to Stockton because it was the closest city where she and her husband could afford to buy a home. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

“I know everyone gives Stockton a really bad rap,” she said, “but our neighborhood’s really nice … Everything you have in San Jose, you have here in our area.”

But there is a big downside to the move — Gonzalez now spends at least three hours a day commuting to her job in San Jose, shelling out $150 a week in gas.

Stockton comes from a troubled financial history, which experts say is another factor in its recent soaring housing prices. The city of 300,000, about 80 miles northeast of San Jose, filed for bankruptcy in 2012 after being hit hard by the housing market crash. That year the city had the nation’s highest foreclosure rate — one in every 153 homes had a foreclosure filing, which was more than four times the national average, according to RealtyTrac.

Marisa Kendall covers housing for the Bay Area News Group, focusing on the impact local companies have on housing availability in the region. She's also written about technology startups and venture capital for BANG, and covered courts for The Recorder in San Francisco. She started her career as a crime reporter for The News-Press in Southwest Florida.